The debate about the Eurozone crisis has moved onto issues of political accountability and responsibility.
We have the governments of two historically important countries – Greece and Italy – in the hands of technocrats rather elected politicians, and many, including Aditya Chakrabortty in the Guardian , are asking: is this right?
In many senses, it isn’t. No public mandate exists for technocrats to lead a democratic, nation state.
But at this moment of crisis, the operating principle is ‘needs must’, and the real question is whether or not sufficient expertise can be brought together to allow the European project to do its job in investing in, and providing for, its citizens.
Technocratic skills are vital if Europe is to be able to effectively target and move money to address [...]

Two interesting articles in the Guardian and the Independent address the issue of why people rioted in the month of August 2011. The Guardian article raises the concerns that David Cameron is trying to restrict access to Twitter and Facebook for individuals who have taken part in the August riots. The Independent article says that an explanation for the riots is that communities do not trust politicians.
Reading these articles, for me the greatest concern is that of restricting information, and entering into a world where for political reasons information is prevented from going to individuals who are seen to take politically unacceptable action. Under the Labour administration, which was a period of high employment and income in the city, a lot of money was put into health and education, but it seems that things have not really improved.
I have seen [...]

Europe’s debt crisis is worsening, as noted in this recent Time article by Michael Schuman . We can see this reflected in the markets from the lack of mobility. We have countries that have not managed their affairs particularly well, such as Portugal or Greece, where they have created a high level of debt without nurturing their wealth creation sector. But equally, certain investment entities have made it their business to deal with bad debt situations and hence make considerable amounts of money out of the present circumstances.
The question is, as the debt crisis gets worse, what is the way forward? One option would be the break up of the Euro, which would see Europe becoming a series of separate states with separate borders and passports and currencies. Or Europe could go the other way and become one singular country. This unified Europe would have [...]

Those ‘ traditional Washington Politics ‘ that Andrew mentioned in yesterday’s post refer to the way that in the US and UK, well organized and well funded corporate bodies can exert a great deal of influence on the government.
Companies can directly donate to a candidate and expect some sort of quid pro quo , or the influence can be less direct: Karthik Ramanna from Harvard Business School and Sugata Roychowdhury of MIT recently wrote a white paper that suggests that in the 2004 election, outsourcing firms located in political battlegrounds were underreporting their profits to deflect attention from their (likely profitable) outsourcing, so that candidates wouldn’t have to confront the issue.
 To get away from these sorts of direct and indirect influence, political and administrative boundaries need to be redesigned. Greater transparency of the interrelationship between politicians, advisors, civil servants, [...]

By promoting an agenda that put the United States above international law, and by ignoring international agreements (like the Kyoto Treaty), George W. Bush has done little to enamor himself with countries around the world. This is part of the reason that Barack Obama is so hugely popular outside the US-his message of change seems to really strike a chord in the US domestically as well as internationally.
But it’s interesting to note how now that he’s the democratic candidate, he’s moved back towards the center the way American candidates often do to appeal to the greatest percentage of the electorate. One example: in the past Obama made a large issue of campaign finance reform and limiting the amount of public funding a candidate can use-however there isn’t a limit if you only use private funding and Obama has decided to go that way. His supporters say [...]